7-Quick takes – the Friday Night edition

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1. Of my 25-things to get done before the end of summer – I got done about half. But it was the most important half so there ya go!

2. Yesterday was our first cross country meet. Izzy and Noah have been training hard for six weeks. When Izzy’s division ran she was off to a good start. She was about the middle of the pack or so. On the first hill I noticed that the last girl was a cute little blond girl with glasses. She clearly was not a great runner, but she had spunk and determination and even though she was dead last, she flashed a pretty smile at her mom as she passed by.

So after ten minutes or so the girls start getting towards the finish line. Two girls from Izzy’s team finished 1st and 2nd. Then after 20 or so runners went by I saw Izzy’s friend Anna go by but no Izzy. And a little while after that the cute little blond girl who struggled up the hill went by, again with a great smile, just more sweat. But no Izzy. Three minutes after that- Izzy. Apparently she got a side stitch that just got the better of her. She was in tears when I finally got to her at the finish line.

3. I reminded Mr. Pete that three years ago, Izzy and Noah both won ribbons in the cross country championships. We were all so excited and happy for them and I was sure that would be the beginning of great running success for them.

Turns out, that was it. They peaked early and have never been in the ribbon-winning position again. A good lesson to remember- savor victory when you can, because when it comes to sports – it’s elusive!

4.  Last Sunday Mr. Pete and I took Sam and cousin Paul to the parking lot behind our house to practice the maneuverability driving test. The boys took turns practicing and Calvin even helped to coach the boys.  As we didn’t have the special cones with the visibility rods sticking up, we took turns standing beside the cones.  When one of the boys would get too close I would scream out “you love your mom, you love your mom” or “you love your aunt, you love your aunt!”  It probably wasn’t the safest thing we ever did but maybe having a living person to miss with the car gave them more incentive.  Must have worked for Sam because he passed his test!

5.  When I tried the maneuverability test, I couldn’t do it.  The boys all got a good laugh out of that.  When I was 16 and going for my test, I remember that I had a very nice and very good looking examiner.  I did a great job on my driving test but couldn’t do the parallel parking at all.  I remember looking at him with big doe eyes and promising never to attempt parallel parking!  He let me pass.

6.  I have kept my promise.  Ya’ll be surprised how far I am willing to park and walk so as to avoid parallel parking.

7.  My 21-year-old EMT son, Calvin, was able to parallel park an ambulance up on the busy streets of Cleveland.    Impressive!

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